Microsoft Announces Xbox Game Pass

Today, Microsoft announced the launch of the Xbox Game Pass, a new subscription service available for $9.99 per month.

The new subscription service will give unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and backward compatible Xbox 360 games. It will be available only to Xbox One and Windows 10 users.

“In addition, all Xbox One games in the catalog – and related add-ons – will be available to purchase at an exclusive discount for Xbox Game Pass members,” Phil Spencer wrote on Xbox’s official site, “so you can make the games you love part of your permanent library to play whenever you want.” The discount on games and add-ons, however, will be available only until the game is part of the Xbox Game Pass catalog.

Spencer also added that the library of games will be cycling every month, with new titles being added and old titles being shifted out.

The program, however, will not be ready right away. Xbox Game Pass, for now, is in a testing phase, as select members of the Xbox Insider Program in the Alpha Preview ring start the testing today with a limited number of titles.

No titles have been unveiled, but the presser from Spencer declares that the selection will include “games from great publishers like 2K, 505 Games, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Capcom, Codemasters, Deep Silver, Focus Home Interactive, SEGA, SNK CORPORATION, THQ Nordic GmbH, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Microsoft Studios.”

The service will be officially launched somewhere next spring in 27 different countries. International prices may vary.

An avid player of sports management games, Alessandro writes about hockey for several online outlets in all over the world. His work appeared, among the others, on The Hockey News, Hockey’s Future, The Hockey Writers and many other. His interest in sports gaming dates back to 1998 with Championship Manager. Today, most of his gaming engagement, much limited by his 3-years-old lovely time-killer, is dedicated to Eastside Hockey Manager.